Democrats close gap with GOP among registered voters in Delaware County

Of the Delaware County's 382,564 registered voters, about 165,805 are Democrats and 174,152 are Republicans, which leaves about 42,607 registered with other parties or without affiliation, according to figures released by the county in late March. (File photo)

Once a longtime Republican stronghold, Delaware County's latest voter registration figures show the gap between registered Democrats and Republicans is narrower than ever.

As of Monday, there were 397,773 registered voters in Delaware County, according to figures released by the county and Pennsylvania Department of State. Of that total, 176,252 are Republicans and 174,890 are Democrats, which leaves 46,631 registered with other parties or without affiliation.

On Oct. 8, there were 392,193 registered voters in Delaware County. Of that total, about 175,403 were Republicans and 171,451 were Democrats, which left about 45,339 registered with other parties or without affiliation.

"This shows the trend toward Democrats is accelerating in Delaware County," said Delaware County Democratic Party Chairman David Landau.

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Landau said there has been a steady progress of more registered Democrats in recent years. In particular, he said there was a large increase in registered Democrats in 2008.

In late October 2008, there were 405,915 registered voters in the county. Of that total, there were 172,115 Democrats and 190,675 Republicans, a difference of 18,560, according to Daily Times archives. Now, the difference between the two major political parties is just 1,362.

"Now, with major registration drives, we're almost completely dead even," said Landau.

The latest figures could work to local Democratic candidates' advantage in the Nov. 6 election.

"I think that really bodes well for the Democratic ticket in Delaware County," Landau said. "If we get Democrats out to vote, the Democrats in Delaware County will do very well."

Delaware County Republican Party Chairman Andy Reilly had a different view.

"During the two weeks prior to the voter registration deadline, national Democrat groups such as the Community Voter Project, Organizing for America and the NAACP launched aggressive efforts to register voters in the more urban areas of Delaware County," Reilly wrote in an email. "Despite the national Democrat groups' aggressive efforts, the Delaware County GOP registration is still greater than the county Democrat registration, which goes against the trend in our neighboring counties of Montgomery and Bucks, where Democrat registration has outnumbered Republican registration for the last five years."

Reilly said the majority of new Democratic registrations in Delaware County were submitted by CVP.

"Workers associated with CVP have been indicted for falsifying voter registrations forms in two states," Reilly continued. "In July, three paid canvassers working for CVP were charged with submitting false names on voter registration forms in Hampton, Va.

"In Wisconsin, a paid employee of CVP was charged with electoral fraud after allegedly submitting 54 falsified registration forms in Milwaukee, including one for a man who died in 1992. The complaint against that employee says that the CVP worker was required to obtain 15 completed registrations a day or else she would not be paid and, in fact, fired. In a third state, Michigan, election officials have reported that registration forms submitted by CVP workers were for voters who were already registered."

Reilly said he "can't say for sure" whether any voter registration fraud has occurred in Delaware County because the CVP registrations are fairly new.

The latest voter registration figures are a stark contrast from two decades ago. In 1992, there were 324,241 registered voters in Delaware County, according to county officials. Of that total, 218,774 were Republicans and 82,783 were Democrats.

And in 2002, there were 327,453 registered voters in Delaware County. Of that total, 196,614 were Republicans and 99,296 were Democrats.

Wes Leckrone, assistant professor of political science at Widener University in Chester, said the overall trend in recent years is that suburban Philadelphia counties that were traditionally Republican strongholds have leaned Democratic. He said that part of the reason there is a lean toward Democratic registration is because "moderate Republicans who are fiscally conservative but either moderate or liberal on social issues" have been turned off by some of the changes in the Republican Party in recent years.

Leckrone also attributed the increase in Democratic registrations to the energy that was generated in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary election between President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ben Berger, associate professor of political science at Swarthmore College, noted that Delaware County has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. At the same time, he noted there still seems to be a lot of support for Republican candidates at the local level, such as municipal and county races.

For example, the five-member Delaware County Council has not had a Democrat since Radnor Commissioner Bill Spingler left after the Home Rule Charter was put into effect in 1976. The charter removed a mandate for two-party representation on county council, and Republicans have controlled it since.